WESTMINSTER Council have been very busy showing off hosting fringe meetings at conference to get the debate rolling on cutting council tax and reducing benefit claims. Leader Philippa Roe will have sore feet tonight, she was hardly off a panel throughout the day and she’s down for reception drinks tonight with Eric Pickles not scheduled to finish until 1am.

The City of Westminster emblem hung high too as the evening grew late above a council-hosted meeting on welfare reform starring Lord Freud, the peer behind some of the benefit changes who was subjected to a visit at his Highgate home earlier this year from UK Uncut protesters armed with a pretend eviction notice.

As the discussion into what to do with the jobless continued, activists clasped complimentary wine and nibbled at a smart buffet of… well, I’m not even sure what they were nibbling at. Something looking like a Masterchef concoction. Roast beef vol-au-vents? Swirls of fish and something creamy? Silver spoons with cubes of caramel? Whatever it all is, I report, with some disappointment, there wasn’t a curled up cheese and onion sarnie in sight.